Dear Future Class of Penn State:
This letter is going to make me sound like a nostalgic old lady, but I don't care. My class has seen it all. 3 presidents, 3 football coaches, riots. You name it. We have faced countless people (metaphorically) spitting in our faces, telling us we aren't worth anything, and saying our institution should be burned to the ground. We were here for the firing and death of Joe Paterno, we have seen our team loose bowl eligibility, and we have seen incredibly brave human beings come forward saying they have been a victim of child sexual abuse. But.....we have also seen great things. Sure, we saw Joe Paterno's win restored, and yes, we received bowl eligibility again, but Penn State is so much more than just sports, or what the news says, or what Keith Olbermann says.
We have seen $49,431,129.85 raised in four years for pediatric cancer research, we have seen countless people support Blue Out to bring awareness to child sexual abuse, and we have received an entire community of support through these 4 years. There is a notion that BIG 10 schools are all about football and education does not matter. We just shove our football players into dumb classes, and professors just hand them grades to insure their football careers. You should know that this is not the case. Penn State athletes have a 89% graduation success rate. You should know that education is greatly emphasized at this school. You should know that John Urschel, who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens, graduated with both a bachelors and masters degree in mathematics, while playing football full time, and has co-authored a paper titled "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians."
Do not take to heart the things that people say about this school. There are some of the greatest professors in the country teaching behind those walls. We have the greatest college marching band that will get you pumped up for any occasion, and we have the greatest chant of any school out there.
Know that when you yell "We Are" or respond with "Penn State," you are yelling more than just a tagline. You are yelling an honor code. You are saying that you are part of a community. When it falls down, you will go and help it get up and get to where it's going. When someone attacks it, you will defend it with honor and pride. When someone shoves it to the ground and tell it it's worthless, you stand up for them without a second thought. "We Are Penn State" tell people exactly that. We Are Penn State. NOT I am Penn State, NOT He/She is Penn State. Remember that you are a family. You are a close knit network of people who have this one thing in common, if nothing else.
It's important to remember this. Be good to each other. If you see someone who needs a hand, lend them a hand. Be nice to the CATA bus drivers, especially late on a Saturday night. Don't leave your friend somewhere you wouldn't want to be left alone. Don't attack the Willard preacher (physically, verbally, etc.). Argue with him all you want, but don't attack him.
Be proud to be a Nittany Lion. Be proud to know that you are part of a unified student body, and be proud of THON, and be proud of Blue Out and the S-zone. Be proud to know that you will find the greatest ice cream in the world on this campus. Most importantly, be proud to be part of something greater than yourself. Know that many Nittany Lions have come before you and many more will come after you. Love this school and make the most of it. You may not think so now, but there will come a time when you will have to say goodbye to this terrifying, amazing great school, and you'll wonder where the time went. When that time comes, make sure that you can look back and say you have done everything you could have done to make the most of your time here. Most importantly, remember that its 2:20 a.m. and Michigan still sucks.
Love,
A graduating senior, class of 2015
There is a movement right now telling women that they need to love their bodies. Women are being told that if you do not fit the mold of what beautiful should be according to social media and the fashion industry, then who cares? You should embrace your bodies and love the way you look. However, by saying this, are we saying that people who are genetically stick thin, or can't gain weight, should all automatically love the way they look and have no body image issues? Just as fat shaming takes a toll on people's self esteem, thin shaming does just the same.
I think there is an assumption that nonplus-size people always love their bodies and don't criticize themselves. I can tell you, this is not true. Sometimes I hate my body. I am, in all truth, very much under the national average size of women (the average size of women in the US is a size 14, I'm a size 4).
I can hear some of you now. "I wish I could look like you!" "You're so thin!" But it's not about that. I don't think that body image is about literal body image, rather, your mentality about your body.
For 22 years, social media and advertisements has told me if I'm not a size 2 and 6ft tall, than I'm not beautiful. Now, along with those same advertisements there is a movement saying that I have to love my body and if I don't, than something is wrong with me. Well, I'm human. I can't always love body and I can't always love the way I look.
It's a vicious cycle. We are constantly told that our bodies are not good enough, but then we turn around, something else tells that we should love our bodies. Being constantly bombarded with these mixed messages brings on a whirlwind of confusion. How do you interpret something like this? We can't just drop everything and go "Yup, I'm going to love my body from here on out!" It's just not that simple.
We have to chip away years of a socially constructed idea and social norms, that are now being attacked. Even while writing this post, while being conscious of this constructed idea of beauty and size, I have chosen photos that I like specifically because I think I look good or "thin" in them. It's uncomfortable to talk about. We, as a society, tend to shove away the uncomfortable things and focus on the pretty and sparkly things. However, since it is uncomfortable to talk about, doesn't that tell us it's something worth talking about?
I think loving your body does not start with a movement or bashing the fashion industry. I think loving your body starts with loving yourself. I think once you start embracing your person and your soul while trying to have a more positive outlook on life, everything else, including body image and loving your body, will fall into place. I can't say that I'm 100% there yet. Sometimes I think I'm too chubby, or I don't have enough curves, or my pores to too large, or no matter how much I eat healthy and exercise nothing changes. But by loving myself and having faith in my person, maybe one day, loving my body will be a part of loving myself.
